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The Story of the Siege and Fall of The Alamo." 



FROM THE ARCHIVES 



A RESUME. 



By 



ADINA DE ZAVALA. 



SAN ANTONIO. TEXAS, 1911 



corrRiOHT. isii. av aoina oe zavala 



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FROM THE ARCHIVES 



**The Story of the Siege and Fall of The Alamo." 




A R ^ S U M ^. 



By 



ADINA DE ZAVALA. 



SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, 1911 



V 



\ '' 



DEDICATED 

TO MY MOTHER. MY FRIENDS, AND ALL 

TRUE PATRIOTS. 



.Mdil. 







THt FORTIFIE.D BUILDING. 

Tlie Main Building of The Alamo. Where the Heroes Died. 

As it looked originally. 



THt CHURCH IN THE. ALAMO. 

Towers, Dome and Arched Rool fell In previous lo or in I 762, 

rwver restored or rebuilt 



GHE long two-story stone building 
was the main building of the 
P'oit and the most strongly fortified 
in 1836, and the building into which 
the men of the Alamo retreated for their 
last stand. It is the building which con- 
tained the hospital in its south end, up- 
stairs, where Bowie was killed. This build- 
ing divested of its arcaded galleries is still 
stiinding on the east side of the upper end 
of Alamo Plaza in San Antonio, Texas, and 
is the building a syndicate wishes to de- 
stroy, and is the building they refer to as 



the "Hugo, Schmeltzer" "eye-sore," etc. The 
reason they wish it destroyed, and are 
denying its hi.storic value, is because they 
own or have an interest in a property or 
proposed business, back of this main build- 
ing of The Alamo, and if this Alamo build- 
ing were out of the way it would place their 
property with a long frontage on Alamo 
Plaza, This property has now no Alamo 
Plaza frontage, being behind The Alamo, 
Legislation in the interest of these "inter- 
ests" is now sought, it is said. Help Save 
The Alamo! This fortified old "long bar- 
rack" where the heroes died! 



HYMN OF THE ALAMO. 



By REUBEN M. POTTER. 



Rise! man the wall! Our clarion blast 

Now sounds Its final reveille; 
This dawning morn shall be the last 

Our fated band shall ever see. 
To Life — but not to hope — farewell! 

Yon trumpets clang, and clarion's peal. 
And storming shout, and clash of steel 
Is ours, but not our country's knell! 
Welcome the Spartan death! 

'Tis no despairing strife. 
We fall! we die! but our expiring breath 
Is Freedom's birth of life. 

Here, on this new Thermopylae, 

Our monument shall tower on high, 

And "ALAMO" hereafter be 

On bloodier fields the battle-cry! 

Thus Travis from the ramparts cried. 
And, when his warriors saw the foe 



Like whelming billows move below, 
At once each dauntless heart replied: 
Welcome the Spartan death! 

'Tis no despairing strife. 
We fall! but our expiring breath 
Is Freedom's dawn of life. 

They come! Like autumn's leaves they fall, 

Yet hordes on hordes still onward rush; 
With gory tramp they mount the wall, 

Till numbers the defenders crush. 
And earth drank blood like copious rain! 

Well may the ruffians quake to tell 
How Travis and his hundred fell 
Amid a thousand foemen slain! 
They died the Spartan's death, 
But not in hopeless strife; 
Like brothers died, and their expiring breath 
Has Freedom's dawn of life. 



"THE LONG BARRACK" 

(The Main Building of the Alunoi 

STILL STANDS. 



The buildings in the Alamo Fort sustained 
very little or no serious damage from the 
guns of the enemy. Santa Anna had no 
regular siege train and only light field 
pieces and howitzers, as Potter and other 
historians note, and Potter distinctly states 
that when he viewed the buildings in 1841 
— five years after the Fall of the Alamo — 
he was astonished that they had withstood 
the guns so well.* Again, in San Anto- 
nio, in 1860, Potter, writing on The Alamo, 
makes the statement that the buildings still 
standing were, "the chapel," "the long bar- 
rack," "the latter a stone house of two 
stories" and the "low barrack" "a one-stor>' 
stone barrack 114 feet long and 17 wide, 
having in the center a porte-cochere, which 
passed through it under the roof." This 
"low barrack" was sold to the City of San 
Antonio in 1871, and torn away in order 
to open the Alamo plaza or rather to unite 
the Plaza de Valero below, to the Alamo 
Plaza above under the latter name. The 



*See also Raines' Life of Santa Anna, also 
Kendall's Santa Fe Expedition and other histories. 



deed of conveyance contains the following: 
"And it being understood that the property 
hereby conveyed is so conveyed on condi- 
tion that it shall be dedicated to the public 
use as an open space and be made a part of 
and one with the plazas above and below it, 
now known as the Alamo Plaza and the 
Plaza de Valero." About the year 1849, Ma- 
jor Babbitt, acting Quartermaster of the 
Eighth Military Department, took posses- 
sion of the Alamo buildings in the name of 
the U. S. Government to use them as a 
Quartermaster's Depot.** A plat of the 
Fort was made in 1846 under order of the 
U. S. Government and still exists.*** Major 
Babbitt found the Church building "choked 
with debris, a conglomeration of stones, 
mortar and dirt,"** just as it was when 
the dome, towers and arched roof fell in 
about 1762, with the disintegration and in- 
jury of nearly one hundred years added. 
November 15, 1878, in cleaning out the de- 

• 'Corner's San Antonio de Bexar. 

•••See plat of Alamo drawn by Edward Everett, 
In U. S. government employ and embodied by 
Capt. Hughes in his report In '46. 



bris, when they were nearly reachinff the 
original level of the old Church, a beauti- 
fully carved baptismal font was brought to 
hght* In 1883, the Church in the Alamo 
Fort was purchased by the State of Texas 
the people of San Antonio still expecting 
that the more ancient two-story stone build- 
ing would be dedicated to the use of the 
public by gift, as was the well known inten- 
tion of Mr. Grenet. The deed from the Cath- 
olic church conveying the Alamo Church to 
the State of Texas reads as follows in recit- 
ing its metes and bounds: "Beginning for 

9 -^•/q'"'?.^''/* ^ P."^"* ^^ ^^^t 614 inches 

; 1 ;?tS- ^^^"^ *he present S. W. corner 

of the OLD STONE BUILDING." It was 

ihat It still stands, and has remained there 
from the beginning is fully proven from 
history by drawings, by maps and plats 
made at various times all adown the years 
and from the testimony of old citizens.** 

♦Corner's San Antonio de Bexar. 

.J*^^/ ^^^*- ^^ authority of U. S. Government 
mlH^ro'!"" °^ ^° Expedition under theTom 
mand of Brig. Gen'l. Wool, U S A" isifi n,,h 
llshed also in government repoVt by Capt Hughes' 
Also see Yoakum, Brown, Thrall, Bancron Ba 
ker-Texas Scrap Book, Raines' L fe of sTta f n 
na, and in fact every History of Texas ente^in/nt 
length into the detail of the Palf of the A^amo 
all show or describe this building as stilling": 
istence and little damaged. Also see manuscripts 



No one thought of denying such a well 
known fact until a syndicate wanted to 
corner on the Alamo Plaza by the Post Of- 
hce, and found the Alamo in their way 
Drawings of the Church and the two-story 
main fortified building of the Alamo Fort- 
ress were made after the Fall of the Alamo 
by an army officer, after the Battle of San 
Jacinto, showing the two-story stone build- 
ing with Its ruined tower at the southwest 

^qTm'i P.l^'^'''.^^, ^"d P^^^^s made in '37, 
38, 41, 45 and '46, and on down to the 
present still exist. Undeniable proof is 
present in our histories and archives that 
the old two-story stone building where our he- 
roes died still stands and is the building re- 
ferred to by the syndicate and "interested" 
parties as the "Hugo-Schmeltzer building" 
^"^ <?" t^t?'-'^ °l "Repairing the Alamo" 
and Beautifying the city," they seek to de- 
stroy and tear down and desecrate the 
building wherein the martyrs of the Alamo 
so heroically sacrified their lives that Texas 
might be free. In the upper story of this 
ancient fortress, styled by these would-be 
destroyers, "the Hugo, Schmeltzer building '' 
in Its sou th side, was the hospital where 

Ihe^^S^orf^nf"^.,,"^ i^^ ^"*'^°'" °f this Resume of 
u- u J °^ ^^^ ^'^Se and Fall of the Alamo 
which the author hopes to give to thp n„i.r„™ 

""h°'^'„'°T ''^ '''' ""Her afjrunt of ''Th" '^ege 



Bowie met his death.* The Church of San 
Antonio de Valero, now styled the Church 
of the Alamo dates from 1744, but the two- 
story stone building is much older, dating, 
it is thought, from 1718. Are we to believe 
the te.stimony of historians and disinterest- 
ed citizens, and drawings and plats made 
from the beginning of the history of San 
Antonio to the present, or are we to accept 
without question the statements of these 



•In Vol. I., Page 576, of Brown's History of 
Texas, referring to Bowie, is the foUowlng: "When 
the attack came on, (Bowie) was confined to his 
bed in the upper room of the barrack marked 
(P.) He was there killed on his couch, but not 
without resistance; for he is said to have shot 
down with his pistols one or more of the enemy 
as they entered the chamber." Again on page 581 
Is found: "Col. Fulton says: "About the first of 
August, 1837, I first visited the Alamo, in com- 



"interested" property owners and syndi- 
cates? 

Help Save the Alamo, and merit the grat- 
itude of all Texans. 

Act quickly, protest and appeal to the 
Governor who has the question now be- 
fore him and to your Senators and other 
representatives in the Texas State Legisla- 
ture. ADINA DE ZAVALA. 
San Antonio, Texas. 

August 21, 1911. 



pany with Judge Baker, then Chief Justice of 
Bexar County, who directed my attention to the 
room I have marked (B) as the one occupied by 
Bowie, being on his sick bed, when bayoneted by 
Santa Anna's minions.' " The room marked (P) 
in the first reference above, and (B) in the last, 
is the hospital room in the upper story of the 
main building of the Alamo and is marked (10) 
in plat accompanying this. 

See nearly all Texas histories. 



PLAT o/ the ALAM O \ -. • 

B ■ — ' N ; 

MISSJOfi SAIS AlSroniO J, VMERO< >i' ' 



HauUOTt/ <^ 




■":^'-^i 



..' <A- 




.' 



-' ry 



Oac/it^ 



^Si 



THE ALAMO. 



(Originally named Miiaion San Antonio de Valero, and founded at Industrial School and Mi**ion-Fortra«i.) 



OLD REFERENCES: 

1836. 

1. The Church in The Alamo. Corner-stone laid 
May 8, 1744. Towers, dome, and arched roof 
fell In previous to or in 1762, and debris re- 
mained untouched until about 1850. when 
much was removed by Major Babbitt. U. S. 
A.» in the years he had possession. 

2. The fortified main building of the Port re- 
ferred to by Potter as "the long barrack, a 
two-story stone building." It had, originally, 
arcaded galleries above and below.* • 

3. Doors in (2) having within a semi-circular 
parapet composed of a double curtain of hides 
upheld by stakes and filled in with rammed 
earth. Loop-holed. 

4. Old Galera or "Prison" also referred to by 
Potter as the "low barrack." 

5. Porte-cochere or entrance to Fort. 

6. Stone walls and rooms surrounding Fort. 

7. Acequia (ditch) running through Plaza. 

8. Rooms used as powder magazines during 
siege. 

9. Cedar post stockade and earthworks in use 
during siege. 



•Corner's San Antonio de Bexar. 

••Documentos para la Historia de la Provincia 
de Texas, (MS.) Mexican Archives. Bolton and 
Barker, With the Makers of Texas. 



10. Hospital upstairs In main Alamo building 
where Bowie was killed and above which, in 
tower room, a small gun did fine execution. 
At this corner the flag of the Alamo floated. 

11. Entrance to the court yard and rooms sur- 
rounding it. Originally the principal en- 
trance to main building. 

12. Court yard or Patio of the main buildlne 
where some of the heroes were burned. Orig- 
inally, this court yard was surrounded on the 
four sides by rooms. 

13. A second court yard existing at an earlier 
period. 

14. Old well that was dug or reopened during 
siege. 

A ditch was dug connecting the acequias on 
the south of the Fort, thus completely surround- 
ing the Alamo by canals. Note cannon and bat- 
teries. 

NEW REFERENCES: 
1911. 

a. Federal building. Federal court house and Post 
Office. 

b. Government lot. 

c. Front of the Main building of the old Alamo 
Fort. The Alamo proper, where the heroes 
died, which together with the Church (1) 1« 
all that is left of the original Alamo. 

d. Gibbs Building. 

e. McGraw building. 

t. Circular curb of Plaza Garden. 



The Story of the Siege and Fall of The Alamo. 



The Alamo was built for a large indus- 
trial school to teach, civilize, and Christian- 
ize the Indians of the locality. It was a 
sort of walled city or fortress and was 
composed of several buildings with their 
courts or patios, and a long rectangular 
plaza within this walled area and cover- 
ed about three acres of ground. All the 
buildings, and the ten-foot wall which sur- 
rounded the entire Alamo Fortress were of 
stone. The high wall was needed as a pro- 
tection against the savage Indians. In this 
industrial school the Indians were taught 
to weave coarse cloths, embroidered cotton 
shawls, blankets, and make other needed ma- 
terials. They were also taught every trade 
or occupation that was useful to them at 
the period, as husbandry, blacksmithing, 
carpentry, stock-raising, architecture or 
house construction.* They were taught too, 
to read and speak Spanish, to write, sing, 
sew, embroider, draw, carve and paint, each 
according to his talents. Even their politi- 
cal education was not neglected, they being 
taught civic government. A governor and 

•Documentos para la Historia de la Provincia 
de Texas (MS.) Mexican Archives. Bolton ana 
Barker, With the Makers of Texas. 



alcalde were annually elected by the In- 
dians and these Indian oilicials then held 
authority in the Mission Pueblo for one 
year. But the story of the foundation and 
conduct of this large school under the name 
of Mission San Antonio de Valero, though 
very interesting, must be omitted from this 
resume of the history of The Alamo. The 
Alamo ceased to be a school and Mission 
some years prior to or about 1783. Con- 
tagious diseases brought into the settlement 
by the Spanish soldiery wrought great havoc 
among the Indians at the Alamo about 1762 
or '63, and greatly depleted their numbers. 
In fact, it might be said that the establish- 
ment as a school ceased to exist then as there 
were so few Indians left. There were scarce- 
ly no tractable Indians about the vicinity to 
refill the school and Mission, and those 
brought in were taken to the Mission below, 
and thus gradually, by reason of the Mission 
Indians and their children becoming civilized 
and incorporated with the rest of the popu- 
lation** in habits and manners, although 
still continuing to inhabit the Mission Pueb- 
lo, this last changed its character and be- 
came an ordinary village or pueblo. A com- 

•*F. Giraud, Yoakum's History ol Texas. 



pany of troops, sent out to protect the school 
and pueblo, took refuge within the walls 
from the incursions of the dreaded Coman- 
ches and other wild tribes, and eventually 
when this walled establishment was no 
longer needed as school and Mission the mil- 
itary took possession of some of the build- 
ings of Mission San Antonio de Valero and 
became a fixture. The troops from the Ala- 
mo de Parras, referred to in the archives of 
San Antonio de Bexar as, "The ancient com- 
pany," were quartered in Mission San Anto- 
nio de Valero so long that in time the Mis- 
sion-fortress lost its official and original 
name and become colloquially, to the people 
about "The Alamo." It was the scene of 
many early conflicts. In 1813, when Gover- 
nor Salcedo surrendered to the Republican 
army of the North, the Americans marched 
into the Alamo Fort and took possession of 
it, together with all the army stores, the 
arms, the military chest, etc., liberating sev- 
enteen of their countrymen found there and 
adding them to their ranks. Thus, all along 
the line, we find "The Alamo" in use as a 
stronghold during the numerous revolutions 
and counter revolutions which shook this 
part of New Spain. But the story of The 
Alamo in which Texans, Americans, and all 
lovers of glorious deeds are most interested, 
is the story of the Siege and Fall of The 
Alamo, March 6, 1836. 

When the Texans occupied The Alamo in 



1836, the Fort was in the same state for de- 
fense in which it had been left by the Mexi- 
can general, Cos, when he surrendered to 
the brave men who took San Antonio under 
Ben Milam, Dec. 1835, but in the opinion of 
J. C. Neill, Lt.-Col. Commanding,* many 
repairs and improvements were needed, and 
it seems that Green B. Jameson was placed 
in charge of such work. Jameson went to 
work at once planning for the better forti- 
fication of The Alamo and soon was erecting 
new batteries and planting cannon. On 
January 6, Neill states that they had about 
twenty-four pieces of artillery, but "two dis- 
tinct fortresses to garrison." They decided 
later that it was impossible to garrison both 
properly and to abandon the fortifications in 
the town and move all the guns to The 
Alamo. 

The Church in the Alamo Fort was a ruin, 
and was still filled with debris from its two 
towers, dome, and arched roof, which fell 
in previous to, or in 1762.** It had never 
been repaired or rebuilt owing to a dread- 
ful scourge which carried off nearly all the 
Indians belonging to the pueblo just after 

•John Henry Brown. 

•♦"The Church of this Mission was finished, 
even to the towers and the sacristy, but, on ac- 
count of the stupidity of the builder, it tumbled 
down." See Documentos Para la Historla de la 
Provincia de Texas, (MS.) Mexican Archives, Bol- 
ton and Barker, With the Makers of Texas, p. 63. 



/ 



the restoration was begun. The rooms on 
the north side of the Church and the west 
tower rooms retained the arched roof, and 
were therefore free of debris, and the only 
part of the Church edifice that was free of 
debris. The main building of the Fort was 
the long two-story building on the east side 
of the large Plaza area described in the old 
manuscript* as a two-story stone building 
about "fifty yards square, with arcaded gal- 
leries above and below." It had many doors 
opening out upon the Plaza or main area ; and 
for the defense of the building, these doors 
had within a semi-circular parapet for the 
use of marksmen, composed of a double cur- 
tain of hides, upheld by stakes and filled in 
with rammed earth. Most of the rooms were 
also loop-holed. This long building was the 
most securely fortified of any within the 
Fortress and in the upper story, on the 
south end, was the hospital of the Fort.** 
Potter and other historians give fourteen as 
the number of guns used. Mrs. Dickinson 
says there were eighteen, while Santa Anna 
placed the number at twenty-one. But as 
Potter states, "The number has little bear- 
ing on the merits of the final defense with 
which cannon had little to do. These guns 



*Documentos para la Historia de la Provincia 
de Texas, Bolton and Barker With the Makers of 
Texas. 

**See Brown's History of Texas, page 576, and 
Potter, Bancroft, Baker and others. 



were in the hands of men unskilled in their 
use, and owing to the construction of the 
works most of them had little width of 
range." Potter places the guns as follows: 
(1) One, a twelve-pounder was mounted on 
a high platform of earth formed by the fall- 
en dome and roof of the Church, and pointed 
east through an embrasure roughly notched 
in the wall; another, (2) was aimed north 
through a similar notch; and another, (3) 
was fired over the wall to the south, but all 
on the same platform. The powder maga- 
zines, and the women and children, were in 
the covered rooms of the Church, the rooms 
on the north and west left intact when the 
roof fell in. To protect the women and 
children and magazines and prevent en- 
trance in that quarter, was the mission of 
these three guns. Marksmen were also sta- 
tioned around the roofless Church on the 
platforms of earth (and wooden scaffolds 
where necessary,) that they might fire over 
the roofless walls, using them as parapets. 
"Between the Chui'ch and the gate of The 
Alamo was a battery of four guns, (4, 5, 
6, 7,) all four-pounders, pointing south. The 
porte-cochere, (the gate of the Alamo) 
through the low barrack, was covered on 
the outside by a lunette of stockades and 
earth, and mounted with two guns (8, 9.) 
In the southwest angle of the large area 
was an eighteen-pounder, (10,) in the cen- 
ter of the west wall was a twelve-pound 



carronade, (11) and in the northwest cor- 
ner of the same area an eight-pounder, (12) 
and east of this within the north wall, two 
more guns of the same caliber (13, 14). All 
xhe guns of this area were mounted on 
high platforms of stockades and earth and 
fired over the walls.* The several bar- 
riers were covered on the outside by a ditch, 
except where such guard was afforded by 
the irrigating canal, which flowed on the 
east and west sides of the Fort, and through 
it, and served to fill the fosse with water. 
The Texans knew that Santa Anna was 
advancing with a large force and Neill,** 
Travis, Bowie and all plead for reinforce- 
ments, but for some reason did not believe 



•Of the four guns mentioned by Mrs. Dickin- 
son and others, one, a small gun, was placed in 
the small tower room over the hospital. In the 
south end of (the main building of the Fort) 
and did fine work in mowing down the ene- 
my as they swarmed into the large area; three 
cannon were placed in the west wall of the Fort, 
near its north corner; by still others, two were 
placed on a platform near the southern end of the 
Plaza of the Fort. These platforms on which the 
cannons were planted were composed of stakes on 
end with rocks and dirt between. 

*• Except Neill. On January 14, 1836, Lt.-Col. 
J. C. Neill asked for re-enforcements and said: "I 
hope we will be reinforced in eight days, or we 
will be over-run by the enemy, but if I have only 
100 men, I will flght 1000 as long as I can and 
then not surrender." 



that it was possible for him to reach San 
Antonio before the middle of March and 
hoped and expected by that time, to be 
fully prepared to meet him. It was there- 
fore something of a surprise when it was 
found that a Mexican Army was near at 
hand, and scouts were sent out to recon- 
noiter. It was found to be only too true 
that a large army was upon them. The sen- 
tinels, posted on the roof of the Church 
of San Fernando reported sight of an army, 
before the return of the scouts. Travis or- 
dered all into the Alamo Fortress and all 
was done that was possible, at the time, in 
preparation for defense. A large division 
of Santa Anna's army arrived soon after, 
and the Alamo was surrounded and the 
siege begun. Travis sent out messengers 
for assistance before the enemy arrived 
and again before the place was invested, 
and we know how the thirty-two heroes 
from Gonzales answered the call March 1st, 
and gave to Texans a sublime example of 
self-sacrifice. The noble Bonham, a friend 
of Travis', determined to stand by his friend 
and the men of the Alamo, returns March 
3rd, signals the Fort, and dashes in through 
the Mexican lines on his snow white steed. 
"Greater love hath no man than this, that 
he giveth his life for a friend." He failed 
in finding helpers, but determined that 
Travis should not fail for the use of his 
strong, right arm and courageous heart. 



and that he would win or die with him. 
And so, through the whole roll call of 
the Alamo heroes, each did his duty 
and stood at his post, hungry, — because 
there was no time for eating, and cold, and 
wearied out with long watching and firing. 
At last Santa Anna determines on the final 
assault and calls a council of war and the 
dawn of the 6th is the time chosen. The 
night of the 5th is the first respite the 
weary garrison has had from the continual 
din of cannon and arms and they seek the 
needed rest as the Mexican troops cease 
firing. We can imagine the feelings which 
prompt them as each tries to do that which 
he thinks should be done first. And then 
to rest — but this rest is not for long. At a 
given signal the three columns of the Mexi- 
can army move simultaneously on The Ala- 
mo, provided with axes, scaling ladders and 
fascines. The assault is begun ! Again the 
cannons boom! Every Texan is at his post, 
and, as the enemy show themselves above 
the wall, they are mowed down by the shots 
of the unerring Texans. Three times they 
waver and retreat but are driven forward 
by their own cavalry. At last, one column 
gains an entrance through a breech on the 
north, another then scaled the high wall on 
the west, and the third repulsed on the 
south at the Church, also scaled the west- 
ern wall. It was impossible for the few 
men of the Alamo to defend the outer walls 



long,* and the most of them soon retreated 
into the long two-story stone building which 
was well fortified, "and it was not till then, 
when they became more concentrated and 
covered within that the main struggle be- 
gan. They were more concentrated as to 
space, not as to unity of command; for 
there was no communicating between build- 
ings, nor in all cases between rooms. There 
was little need of command, however, to 
men who had no choice left but to fall 
where they stood before the weight of num- 
bers. There was no retreating from point 
to point, and each group of defenders had 
to fight and die in the den where it was 
brought to bay."** From the doors, win- 
dows and loop-holes of the several rooms of 
the main building, the crack of the rifle and 
the hiss of the bullet came fierce and fast; 
as fast the enemy fell and recoiled in his 
first efforts to charge. "The gun beside 
which Travis fell was now turned against 
this building, as were also some others, and 
shot after shot was sent crashing through 



*0n Page 577, Vol. I., John H. Brown's His- 
tory of Texas recites: "The truth was, these ex- 
tensive barriers formed in reality nothing more 
than the outworks, speedily lost, while the build- 
ings within constituted the CITADEL AND SCENE 
of sternest resistance." This is a quotation from 
Captain Reuben M. Potter, U. S. A., who was a 
resident of Matamoros at the time of the Fall of 
the Alamo. 

** Potter. 



the galleries and doors and barricades of 
the several rooms. Each ball was followed 
by a storm of musketry and a charge; and 
thus room after room was carried at the 
point of the bayonet, when all within them 
died, fighting to the last. "The struggle 
was made up of a number of separate and 
desperate combats, often hand to hand, be- 
tween squads of the garrison and bodies 
of the enemy. The bloodiest spot about the 
Fort tvas the long barrack and the ground 
in front of it, where the enemy fell in 
heaps."* A Mexican soldier gave his tes- 
timony as follows: "The Texans fought 
like tigers. The proportion was one to one- 
hundred, yet no quarter was asked and each 
sold his life as dearly as possible. The last 
moments of the conflict were terrible. The 
darkness of the rooms, the smoke of the 
battle and the shrieks of the wounded and 
dying all added to the terror of the scene. 
Unable to distinguish friend from foe, the 
Mexicans actually brained each other in 
their mad fury. After the battle was over 
and all were dead, the scene beggared de- 
scription. The floor of the main building 
was nearly shoe deep in blood, and welter- 
ing there were hundreds of dead men, many 
still clenched together \^^th one hand while 
the other hand held the sword, pistol or 

•Potter. This "long barrack" Is the old two- 
story stone building called by the syndicate the 
"eye-Bore," the "Hugo-Schmeltzer" building. 



knife which told how they had died in that 
last terrible struggle. And thus, the curtain 
went down in darkness and blood on the 
saddest and sublimest event in the world's 
history." 

Mrs. Dickinson, wife of Lieut. Dickinson, 
who was killed in the defense of the Alamo, 
Mrs. Alsbury, wife of Dr. Alsbury, with 
their children, and several other women 
and children who had been all during the 
time of the battle in the north rooms of 
the Church, were permitted to leave. Mrs. 
Dickinson and babe were sent on horseback 
to the Texans at Gonzales, and was soon 
joined by Travis' negro servant who had 
escaped the guard. The other women were 
cared for by their relatives in San Antonio 
and vicinity. Mrs. Dickinson tells how Ev- 
ans, (Master of Ordnance, who had been 
instructed to fire the magazines when all 
was over,) was followed and killed by the 
Mexicans as he jumped down from the de- 
bris and attempted to enter the room where 
she was, in a north room of the Church, 
with a torch to carry out his instructions. 
She also speaks of another gunner named 
Walker, who was killed in her presence as 
he was running for the magazine. None of 
the women or children were injured during 
the seige as they were not in the part of the 
Fort where the battle waged. The wo- 
men and children saw none of the bat- 
tle, as there were only the gunners and a 



few sharpshooters stationed on the roofless 
walls of the ruined church to protect the 
magazines and entrance in that direction, 
for the main conflict raged in the main 
building of the Fort, the two-story stone 
building northwest and adjoining the 
Church and it was impossible for the women 
to either see or hear anything except the 
crack of the rifle, the shrieks of the 
men and the booming of the cannon. 
The women have only been able to tell 
of the few who were killed in that 
part of the Alamo. "Thermopylae had her 
messenger of defeat, but the Alamo had 
none." The bodies of the dead heroes were 
ordered by Santa Anna to be piled in heaps 
and burned and this order was in part exe- 
cuted in the court yard or patio of the main 
Alamo building, north of the Church. The 
others were burned in three piles to the 
south and southeast. The following year a 
band of patriots gathered up the ashes and 
the charred remains and buried them with 
military honors. No one knows the exact 
spot, though many have pointed out where 
they think it is; but the old building in 
which they gave up their lives still stands, 
and the ancient court yard in which some 
were burned and where the blood of 
heroes is mingled with the soil, still exists 



sacred to Texans and all patriotic people. 
The greatest heritage of the children of 
Texas and America is the noble example of 
its great men and heroes. Let us not for- 
get their deathless deeds, for the moment 
we begin to ignore these sublime virtues ex- 
emplified by the noble souls of our race, our 
degeneration has begun. Let us save our 
landmarks and sacred battlefields and build- 
ings as reminders and monuments. No 
monument that could be erected by the 
hands of man to the memory of the heroes 
could be as great or as sacred as the Alamo 
itself wherein we are brought face to face 
with the history and scenes from the lives 
of the men who rendered the Alamo im- 
mortal. Only two of the buildings of the 
Alamo still stand, the Alamo proper, where 
the heroes died and piled the enemy before 
them in heaps, where the floor was shoe 
deep in the blood of friend and foe ; and the 
old Church, then a ruin, whose north rooms 
sheltered the women and children and mag- 
azines, and which was defended by a few 
gunners and sharpshooters. If you love and 
appreciate the noble and sublime do all you 
can to save these two old buildings and the 
old court yard, — all that are left to remind 
us of the sublime sacrifice of the men of 
the Alamo. 



The De Zavala Chapter, Daughters of the 
Republic of Texas, pioneers in the work of 
saving the relics, manuscripts, books and 
historic places of early Texas, conceived the 
idea of saving the main building of the 
Alamo Fortress and re-consecrating it to 
the memory of the Heroes of the Alamo to 
be used as a Texas Hall of Fame and a 
Museum of History, Relics, Art, and Liter- 
ature, to be forever free for the use of 
Texans and all within the borders of Texas. 
An option was obtained on the Alamo prop- 
erty by De Zavala Chapter, and work un- 
dertaken to raise the money for its pur- 
chase. 

The raising of the money seemed sure, 
as all the people of Texas approached, were 
enthusiastic and willing to contribute to 
save the building; but as a certain fixed sum 
was necessary on certain dates to meet the 
payments, De Zavala Chapter, decided to 
ask the Legislature to appropriate the 
money for the balance due, and offered on 
their part to give clear title to the property 
and the twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) 
already paid in as part payment, and to 
take charge of the buildings and maintain 
them in good order and repair without cost 
to the State, and to repair and restore to 



its former beauty the old "long barrack" or 
Fortress building proper of the Alamo, 
where the heroes died, on the condition that 
the old main building of the Alamo, "the 
long barrack" should be used as a Hall of 
Fame and a Museum of History, Relics, Art 
and Literature, devoted to the memory of 
the heroes of Texas, and that the care and 
custody should remain with the Association, 
and that it should be repaired only under 
its direction. 

The President of De Zavala Chapter wrote 
or dictated both memorial and bill present- 
ed to the Legislature asking that the prop- 
erty be given into the custody of the Asso- 
ciation. The Twenty-ninth Legislature 
granted the request of De Zavala Chapter, 
so unanimously endorsed by the people of 
Texas, and the property was eventually 
turned over to the De Zavala Chapter. Here 
the Hotel Syndicate stepped in and by its 
machinations for the destruction of The 
Alamo proper caused both the ancient Fort- 
ress Building and Church to be snatched 
from the devoted hands of De Zavala Chap- 
ter; and since 1905, the property has been 
shamefully neglected and put to disgraceful 
use for these "business interests." A set 
of men have been trying at each succeeding 



Legislature to have this main Alamo build- 
ing torn down in order to put their prop- 
erty to the front and benefit themselves by 
enhancing the value of their own property. 

The people of San Antonio had always 
looked upon the old Fortified Alamo Build- 
ing as public property as Honore Grenet the 
owner had publicly announced his intention 
of devoting it to the memory of the heroes 
of Texas, by gift to the people of San An- 
tonio and Texas, and in fact, part of the old 
building was long used as a Museum. The 
sudden death of Mr. Grenet, before title to 
the property was executed to the public, de- 
prived the people of this benefaction. 

Mr. Grenet built wooden galleries around 
the two-story stone building (which latter 
had been comparatively little damaged in 
1836,) to represent the former arcaded gal- 
leries of stone, and erected two towers, 
bristling with wooden cannons, and a bat- 
tlemented top of wood over the old stone 
fortress building, and painted the words, 
"The Alamo Building," on the west and 
south sides. He thus, as he said, restored 
the outer appearance of the main building 



of the Alamo (as closely as he could at the 
time) in an endeavor to keep fresh in the 
minds of the people of Texas the memory 
of the heroic deeds enacted therein. 

De Zavala Chapter secured the option on 
this property, paid twenty thousand dollars 
($20,000) of the purchase price, and then 
gave title to the State of Texas on the con- 
ditions above enumerated. 

The president of De Zavala Chapter wrote 
the Memorial and Bill presented to the Leg- 
islature. 

Will Texas remember The Alamo and keep 
faith with the ladies of the De Zavala Chap- 
ter, of San Antonio, who saved the Alamo, 
1903-1905? 

Send in your protests and appeals, at 
once, to the Governor of Texas, and to your 
Senators and other Representatives in the 
Texas Legislature asking them to save this 
old Alamo building. 

This Resume of the Story of the Siege 
and Fall of the Alamo may be obtained 
from the Author, 141 Taylor St., San Anto- 
nio, Texas, and from the book stores. 



THE ALAMO 

(John P. SjoWndar) 



Oh. Bay, have you heard what the Huns propose? 

Do away with the Alamo. 
In the guise of friends they outdo the foes 

That stormed it long years ago. 
With a smiric and smile, and a bag of gold. 

They would give us something as good; 
They would raze to the ground what our patriots 
bold 

Built up with their hearts' red blood. 

Oh, they plead the cause of a vandal race. 

That is ruled by the god of Greed. 
They would do away with our holiest place. 

And undo the loftiest deed. 
And the shame of it is that they come In guise 

Of friend when they are our foe; 
But the women and men of Texas will rise 

In defense of the Alamo. 

Yes, down with the Huns who have shamelessly 
breathed 

Such a vile and infamous thought. 
There was never a grander gift bequeathed 

Than the gift that our martyrs brought. 
And it shall not be said that for silver and gold. 

To a heartless and vandal foe. 
The people of Texas once bargained and sold 

One stone of the Alamo. 
Cedar Bayou, Tex, 



AU(i Ts •■'■• 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRF^Q 

iBBil 

014 646 993 i 




